While air quality in general is improving nationwide in the U.S., the incidence of respiratory illness is rising dramatically. Asthma has risen nearly 50 percent in the last decade and now afflicts 15 million people. Abatement and other measures have noticeably "cleaned" the air and as a consequence of the rising health issues this can only mean that the unseen, fine and ultra fine atmospheric particulates pose particularly toxic and uncharacteristic behavior. This study seeks to qualify and to the extent possible quantify the characteristics of the ultra-fine or nanoparticulate regime (particulates as small as one ten-thousandth the diameter of a human hair) representing aspects of the air in the El Paso, Texas, Juarez, Mexico metroplex. Utilizing a unique device called a thermal precipitator (of our own design and fabrication) for efficient collection of these ultra-fine particulates on special, carbon-coated grid platforms, the collected particulates will be observed in the transmission electron microscope fitted with a so called energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer which is capable of identifying their chemical compositions. Consequently, the detailed particle shapes and morphologies, sizes, size distributions, and chemical identities can be studied. Additionally, this analysis can determine whether the particulates are crystalline. This is important because various crystalline particulates can act as effective catalysts, developing unusually toxic chemicals on their surfaces by reactions of and with gas molecules. Finally, these studies will be correlated with clinical documentation of respiratory episodes in the city of El Paso, TX utilizing collaborations with pulmonary respiratory health specialists. Of particular interest will be episodic events involving children and the elderly. The incidence of specific particulates or particulate distributions will be examined in relation to documented episodes and there will be some effort to identify ultra-fine particulate sources in the regional air.